Futures Unlocked | CFE Event Series
Event description
Unlock Your Future Literacy Skills
Prepare to rethink what’s possible and reimagine tomorrow with Futures Unlocked. This event series is designed to empower individuals and organisations with the knowledge, strategies and tools necessary to not just survive, but thrive in an increasingly unpredictable and complex world.
Futures Unlocked will be held every month from June to November 2025 from 12:00 -1:00pm at QUT Gardens Point.
This is a free event.
Transforming insights into action
Futures Unlocked bridges the gap between cutting-edge research and practical application. At its core, this series translates empirically grounded future insights into actionable frameworks, offering unparalleled value to researchers, strategists and leaders engaging with abductive methodologies. Participants will gain exposure to prospective theorising, speculative rigor and scientifically driven approaches to conceptualising desirable futures. Whether you are seeking to construct theoretical paradigms around possible futures or explore methodologies that combine creativity with analytical precision, this series will illuminate pathways for rigorous, impactful foresight work.
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Multidisciplinary perspectives from visionary leaders
Our program features an exceptional lineup of globally recognised speakers and thought leaders, bringing diverse disciplines together to explore the future through both theoretical and practical lenses. From foundational theories in future studies to innovative, data-driven methodologies, this series provides a rich spectrum of insights that resonate across fields and industries.
Expect to deepen your understanding of critical topics such as:
Future-focused abductive reasoning and theory building.
Data-informed speculative modeling.
Systematic approaches to mapping trends, forecasting scenarios and mitigating risks.
The dialogue doesn’t stop at theories. Our speakers emphasise actionable foresight, showing you how to harness emerging opportunities in dynamic and complex systems.
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Who will benefit from Futures Unlocked?
If your work, passion or influence involves shaping what lies ahead, this series is designed for you. Whether you are:
An entrepreneur or business leader navigating market complexities,
A policymaker or decision-maker influencing societal outcomes,
An educator or scholar preparing the next generation, or
An individual committed to understanding global shifts and their local implications,
Futures Unlocked provides the critical tools and network to prepare for what’s next.
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Keynote speakers and thought leaders
Our speaker lineup includes some of the most prominent voices in futures thinking, foresight strategy and advanced decision-making. With deep expertise across academia, industry and policymaking, these thought leaders bring a wealth of experience to help participants tackle the challenges of uncertainty and innovation..
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| Joseph Voros- | -Tuesday 24 JuneDr Joseph Voros is a futurist and strategic foresight practitioner with over 25 years of experience helping organisations navigate long-term change. With a PhD in theoretical physics, his early career included time at Netscape in Silicon Valley before transitioning to futures work in academia and policy. At Swinburne University, he played a key role in developing foresight capabilities and taught in the Master of Strategic Foresight program. His award-winning work on foresight methodologies and futures intelligence continues to influence strategic thinking globally. Now working independently, Dr Voros advises institutions such as NATO and the Australian National University on futures strategy, scanning, and long-range thinking. His current focus is on applying deep-time perspectives - such as Big History and Cosmic Evolution - to inform future-oriented decision-making at planetary scale. He remains committed to advancing the discipline of Futures Studies through research, mentoring, and global collaboration. |
| Elissa Farrow- | -Tuesday 29 JulyDr Elissa Farrow is a futurist, author, speaker, coach and strategist. As a highly skilled and experienced consultant, Elissa is dedicated to helping organisations navigate the complex landscape of strategy development, futures and foresight, and Artificial Intelligence. She has over 25 years experience in user centred research, organisational innovation, change design and facilitation. She is an experienced executive board director and an Adjunct Fellow at the University of the Sunshine Coast. She was a former Global Board member of the Change Management Institute and past Chair of DV Connect, an organisation committed to ending domestic and family violence. Her doctoral research explored organisations of the future and the implications of artificial intelligence for leaders, teams and the adaptation approach. For fun you will find Elissa on the beach at Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island) as a voluntary patrolling surf life saver. |
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| Dirk Hovorka- | -Tuesday 26 AugustDirk S. Hovorka is an Associate Professor in the Business Information Systems discipline at The University of Sydney Business School. He holds as MS in Geology and an MS in Interdisciplinary Telecommunications, and received his PhD in Information Systems from the University of Colorado. His research is centered on: the philosophical foundations of IS research with a focus on theory and theory development; design practices, ecosystems, configurations and theory: and on the co-constitutive role of information systems in scientific research. He research has been published in the Journal of the AIS, Information Systems Journal, European Journal of Information Systems, Communication of the AIS, Decision Support Systems, a number of book chapters and, the major IS conferences. Dirk was a co-author on “Secondary Design: A Case of Behavioral Design Research” which received the AIS 2011 Best Paper Award and was JAIS Best Paper. |
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| Nicoletta Boldrini- | -Tuesday 30 SeptemberNicoletta Boldrini specialises in Emerging Technologies Scanning and Technology Foresight. She is a Maieutic Facilitator, practitioner, and trainer who integrates Futures & Foresight with methodological frameworks such as Creative Problem Setting/Solving, Liberating Structures, Design Thinking, and LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® in workshops for both corporate and academic environments. A humanist with a passion for science, Nicoletta is a journalist and science/tech communicator, as well as a Futures Literacy Advocate with a focus on emerging technologies and future scenarios. She serves as Editor-in-Chief of Tech4Future, and is a frequent speaker and anchor at events. She is a Board Member of the Association of Italian Futurists and an active member of several international futures communities, including the Global Futures Society, Dubai, Association of Professional Futurists, World Futures Studies Federation, Foresight Europe Network, and the Italian Institute for the Future. Through these affiliations, she contributes to global communities of practice in Futures Studies and promotes Futures Literacy. Nicoletta is also the author of the book “FUTURES PRIMER: The ABCs of the Future | A Theoretical and Practical Guide to Futures Studies and Futures Thinking.” |
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| Stefan Hajkowicz- | -Tues 28 OctoberStefan is a chief research consultant in CSIRO working at the interface between science and technology and policy and strategy. His work helps decision makers in government, industry and community organisations explore plausible futures and make wise choices. Over the past 15 years he’s led a body of strategic foresight research at CSIRO involving scenario planning, megatrends analysis, risk analysis and decision support. Stefan is widely published in the peer-reviewed international research literature and his book “Global Megatrends” is a CSIRO Publishing best seller. His research expertise is in the fields of geography, economics, decision theory, management science and strategic foresight. He has a doctorate from the University of Queensland and post graduate diploma in economics from the University of New England. He has been a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Foresight Community and the OECD’s Government Foresight Community for over ten years. He is a fellow of the Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences. |
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| Peter Scoblic- | -Tues 25 NovemberDr. Peter Scoblic is a co-founder and principal of Event Horizon Strategies. He is also a senior fellow with the Future Security Program at New America; a senior associate at CSIS’s Hess Center for New Frontiers; an adjunct professor at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service, where he teaches foresight and forecasting; and an instructor in Harvard’s Professional Development Program, where he teaches behavioral decision-making. Peter has published widely on strategic foresight, including in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Science, Harvard Business Review, and Foreign Affairs. He is the author of the forthcoming American Psychohistory (Simon & Schuster), an intellectual history of the quest to quantify decision-making and the effort to preserve a role for human judgment, from early attempts to optimize strategy under uncertainty to recent advances in artificial intelligence. |
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